Basic Round Canopy Jump Course -$450 ($375 for Members) 18 Mar - 21 Mar 2019 - This 4-day course teaches the basics of jumping with a military static line steerable round parachute. It is for those with no previous parachuting experience, experienced skydivers who have not jumped with a round parachute before. You will be instructed on the use of the SF-10A parachute, currently in use with the US Army as part of the MC-6 parachute system. Instruction will include equipment familiarization, actions in the aircraft, actions during descent, landing techniques, the basics of canopy control and emergency procedures. After completing ground training, you will conduct 3 jumps from a Cessna 182 or Kodiak at 1,500 feet AGL. Total cost for the course is $450, which includes professional instruction, a reference manual, parachute rental, 3 repacks from our on-site rigger service, and 3 lift tickets on the Cessna 182 or Kodiak. After completing the first jump course, you will receive a RCPT-USA Certificate of Completion.

Basic Airborne Refresher - $250 ($175 for Members) 19-21 Mar 2019 Basic Airborne Refresher Course for jumpers who have been to a Basic Airborne course, but have not jumped with RCPT-USA before and have not jumped in the last 180 days. This course will update the jumper on current SF-10A parachutes and jump procedures, to prepare them for 2 jumps at the end of the course from the Cessna 182 or Kodiak. The course price includes professional instruction, a reference manual, jump fees, parachute rental, parachute repacking, and RCPT-USA Annual Membership.

RCPT Airborne Refresher (RAR) - ($50) 21 March 2018 - RAR Course is for returning RCPT-USA members who have jumped at RCPT events previously but have not jumped in greater than 180 days. This 8 hour course will update the jumper on current SF-10A parachutes and jump procedures, to prepare them for a jump at the end of the course. The course includes professional instruction, a reference manual, parachute rental, and parachute repacking. Price is for event registration and does not include price of jump (same price as a straphanger)

Arrivals: Nearest airports are Gainesville (GNV) and Jacksonville (JAX). Let us know your flight plans, so we can help link up travelers for car-pooling to and from the airport.

Clothing: Any style Army field uniform is fine, but you can wear any long sleeve, long pants, and over the ankle boot ensemble you like. Folks wear OG107s, BDUs, ACUs, OCPs, M42s and flight suits. If you have a jump helmet, bring it, we also have other helmets to use at the DZ. The only time we require a certain uniform is for airshows, not during our jump events.

The long awaited Announcement of the 75th D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation schedule for 2019!! Email 75ddayops@orange.fr to receive the Manifest announcement as soon as it is available! This Event listing is for information purposes only.

Relocation to Upottery Airfield. Exhibition and commemoration ceremony in cooperation with the Heritage Center Upottery Airfield. (Open day for spectators).

Day III. Wednesday, June 5, 2019,

I. Formation flight with all airplanes and paratroopers together over the channel directly into the American drop zone "Maudite" (Carentan, Angoville-au-Plain ...) followed by a mass drop of all paratrooper participants. The aircraft then return to the home base at the Maupertus airport in Cherbourg - Normandy for the rest of the operation.

Day IV. Thursday, June 6, 2019.

Free day (no event program of RCPT).

Day V. Friday, June 7, 2019,

II. Formation flight with all aircraft from Maupertus Cherbourg Airport, into the English drop zone "Ranville" - Normandy, followed by another mass drop of all paratroopers.

Day VI. Saturday, June 8, 2019,

Parachute jump over the drop zone "Ecausseville" at the Zeppelin hangar. (On this jump is still open, whether in the entire airplane formation is flown, or "only" in diminished grouping - information follows).

Day VII. Sunday, June 9, 2019,

III. Formation flight with all aircraft from Maupertus Cherbourg Airport, to the American drop zone "La Fière" Sainte Mère-Eglise - Normandy, followed by another mass drop of all paratroopers.

Day VIII. Monday, June 10, 2019,

Event end

Very cordially,

The D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation Staff

Background: For the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, RCPT was challenged to create the event Daks over Normandy to celebrate the sacrifices and triumphs of those Paratroopers of 1944. By all reports, it was crowned a great success.

Our 2014 event was an extremely ambitious undertaking, which followed a difficult path including administrative burdens, restrictions and security constraints which our region lives through on the occasion of such large ceremonies.
RCPT, by its persistence, diplomacy and professionalism, proved by the success of the aviation events to be in perfect coordination with aerial, military, and state organized events during that period.
On the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, our association RCPT, with the corporation and partnership of the towns of Carentan, Sainte Mère Eglise, Ranville, the airport of Cherbourg Maupertus and the President of the Normandy region, has the pleasure to announce the creation of our new event, the "D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation".
(For internal reasons and not through choice, we will no longer conduct operations under the name of "Daks over Normandy" )
The 75th anniversary will be on a grand and international scale with a large presence of Heads of State. There will be heightened and more restrictive security in the airspace. A large gathering of aircraft will be extremely difficult to manage during this period and it is plausible that flights or events could be cancelled at any time when or if the reasons of state and security require. For this reason, we have planned our schedule in total coordination and agreement with the governmental planners and civil aviation authorities, at an airport unlikely to be affected by dignitary arrivals.
It is at the outset responsible and realistic to make an event qualitative rather than quantitative.
Therefore, we will differentiate from previous events by only using planes bearing historical 1944 D-Day colors with the number of planes deliberately limited, to ensure the unhindered course of the planned program and with participating jumpers exclusively dressed in 1944 paratrooper uniform .

The program of our "D-Day Memorial Airborne Operation" being fully bound to airdrops of 6 June 1944, we will be exclusively using jump ships in the “invasion configuration” with anchor lines for airborne operations.

Just as during the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, the base of action will be the airport of Cherbourg Maupertus , which we have the guarantee of non-requisition.
It is ideally located in the historic sector close to Utah Beach and areas of airdrops of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and not too far from the UK Dz’s.
We look at a maximum of 6 C47 - C53 planes.
In this 75th D-day commemoration, all parachute teams are welcome to join on equal status this event, we aim to working together in order to enable all participants to jump in commemoration and honor of our veterans.

Above all, we look forward to warmly welcoming you in a spirit of camaraderie together in our common passion, - historical airborne operations, honour, memory and remembrance.

Eagerly awaiting in expectance of your participation to this combined effort, we look forward to welcoming you to this official event which will ensure your active participation and jumping during the commemorations of the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.
If you chose to be part of this event, please email at 75ddayops@orange.fr and you will receive the manifest as soon as it opens.